A year or so ago, I became interested in preparing for a disaster, so I went to the Internet to see what other folks are doing to prepare. I was surprised to learn the number of people who have been preparing for quite some time, and also at the level of their preparations; purchasing remote properties, building up a personal arsenal, and buying and storing food stocks for their families.

I am a planning-type person, and I don’t usually do anything without careful consideration and a solid plan. I like to think through what I will do, what I might need in the way of tools, parts, etc., and what my desired results are before I begin a project. Like all my projects, whether they be a family vacation, changing the brakes on my car, or preparing for a disaster, I feel a need to plan.

I decided to work on my preparedness tasks in parallel. As I was building up my food stocks, I also built up my weapons and ammo stock, and continued to read and learn about preparedness and survival. When I began to tackle a bug out plan, I found the task quite difficult as I thought through the three elements of how I tackle projects:

What is the task or tasks involved?

What items and tools will I need?

What are my desired results?

Right away, I knew the answer to question three. In a bug out situation, I desired to stay alive and have the best quality of life possible for the situation. Answering questions one and two were not so easy. The planning gene in my head caused me to think about what actually is involved with pre and post “bugging out” in order to answer the first two questions. As I thought about making my plan, a sound solution to bugging out became quite murky.

There are many websites, blogs, and videos available via the Internet that provide information, ideas, and examples of bug out situations, bug out equipment, and bug out strategies, and I eagerly studied as much as a I could. I initially thought bugging out was a mighty fine idea when the SHTF. After careful consideration, though, I have concluded that bugging out should be my last resort, my “plan Z”, and only after I’ve tried every possible way to avoid it. I offer these bug out cons for your consideration:

The Plan

Everyone should have a plan and equipment for bugging out for those extreme situations when your back is to the wall, or marauding gangs are torching every house on your street. If you must bug out, have a pre-planned destination, and you must get there before your supplies run out. Essential to your bug out plan is to clearly define the condition(s) that would trigger your “got to bug out” alarm.

Remember, though, you’ll be quitting your job, abandoning your house, and your bills will pile up in your overflowing mailbox and remain unpaid. When a crisis occurs, you will not have time to make a successful bug out plan, so you must make your plan now. Anyone can make a plan, but it takes careful thought and consideration to make a successful plan.

Quality of Life

The notion of bugging out is quite simple; grab your stuff and go. However, after bugging out and arriving “somewhere”, then what? What will you do and what will be your quality of life? When you are at home, all your equipment, food stocks, weapons, and gear are basically within easy reach.

If you have prepared and planned well, you can stay indoors for quite some time and enjoy a high quality of life. You can continue to sleep in your bed, have a bathroom down the hall, and even keep up with current events and what’s happening in your neighborhood.

The act of bugging out brings on its own set of potentially dangerous problems that you will have to deal with and suffer through “on the fly.” In all of my Internet travels, I have yet to see a bug out bag that was stocked and equipped as well my home. Bug out bags usually provide basic survival-type equipment and rations for up to 7 days.

The prospect that my situation would become that much more precarious after my rations ran out is none too appealing. Can I really depend upon hunting, fishing, and berry scavenging?

Land Mines

You are much safer in your own home in most situations. With adequate planning and supplies, you can hunker down and survive through chemical and even biological gas clouds. You can still call the police who might be able to assist you. You and your neighbors might band together to improve your collective security. Think long and hard before you engage in bugging out.

On your way to your pre-determined bug out destination, you need to avoid being ambushed, injured, robbed, or worse. You will not know who is friend or foe, and you must remain as inconspicuous and “normal” as possible.

I think it is unwise to assume you can and will homestead in the forest, hunting and fishing like Daniel Boone until “someone” gives an “all clear” and you can return home. You will not be the only person in the forest, and any food that is available will quickly be hunted or scared away. Your forest will soon be overrun with survivalist who claim hunting territories, and battles will ensue. Gangs will form and if you’re a loner, you will not survive.

Under such conditions, it would be nearly impossible for you to rest or sleep. You’d have to be on your guard 24/7. You couldn’t leave your camp to hunt or fish for fear of coming back to nothing, or a pack of squatters who have taken over your camp and everything you depend upon.

If you knew or sensed that others were in your forest, having a camp fire would be a bad idea because it would give away your location. How would you stay warm, or cook your kill? What if someone off in the distance sees smoke and calls 911 to report a forest fire? What about the winter cold or the summer mosquitos?

What would you do? Remember, you took only your bug out bag which did not have a sleeping bag or multi-season clothing. Sure, you have your big bowie-knife, your .22 rifle, and your length of para cord, but what about those other hundred items you need now that are back home?

Remote Hideaway

If you are one of the fortunate individuals who has some land in a remote location that you have already set up to be your bugged out location, great! The difficult task for you is to know when to bug out and before the crisis or disaster occurs. Timing will be critical. Bugging out after the crisis only increases your chances that you’ll be stuck in gridlock traffic, apprehended, robbed, or again, even worse.

Predicting when and where a disaster or crisis will occur is anyone’s guess. If you guess wrong, then you would have bugged out for nothing, and increased your chances of coming home to a looted and ransacked house.

Abort! Abort!

If you decide to return home, your immediate task would be to navigate your way through or around newly formed gangs and other non-friendlies you might encounter. If you bugged out with your get home bag, it is safe to say that any food you had in your get home bag would have already been eaten a long time ago.

You might arrive home only to find that your house has been looted, and all the food, gear, weapons, and supplies you didn’t take with you when you bugged out are gone. Your windows are broken, your electronics have disappeared, and you quickly discover thieves stole all the copper wires and pipes in your house, along with your refrigerator.

We all know that thieves are not a considerate lot. Since they took your copper pipes and left the water turned on, your house is now flooded, and your water bill is over $1,000. To add insult to injury, every thread of clothing, shoes, tools, and anything of any value that you had is now gone. Was it bugging out or going home that was the wrong decision?

Conclusion

I am unable to convince myself that I, after being so dependent upon grocery stores, utilities on demand, and sound shelter for decades, could just set up camp in the forest for an unknown length of time with only a bug out bag. You know, I am not the MacGyver type.

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whether you plan to bug out, or in…make the decision, then start implementing the plan. If you bug in, you’ve got to start thinking about your neighbors, who you might be able to trust. Observe who is growing a garden, figure out if any are former military or LEO. There are a million things to do. I suggest you get the book “A Failure of Civility”. It has some great information for those that decide to bug in, setting up protection for your neighborhood, etc. Best of luck on your preparedness journey. One more resource, American Preppers Network has a state directory with forums. You might be able to make some local prepper connections. Just be careful who you share information with. Someone willing to tell you everything about themselves, would probably share YOUR information with others. Tread carefully.

Hey DK. I don’t know if you’ll see this, as my reply is late in coming due to the long weekend and my having been out of town. Your post piqued my interest, so I did some looking. Here is what I found:

What makes this particularly interesting is that it was just March 22nd when Great Britain came within 36 hours of running out of natural gas. (Many articles are available on this topic.) Also interesting is that Algeria is a major SUPPLIER of gas to Europe, not ordinarily an importer. Then we have the Qatari mercenaries (for whom their employer covets a gas pipeline across Syria) aiding Syrian “rebels,” the EU dropping its moratorium on arms shipments to the Syrian “rebels,” and Russia shipping in large numbers of anti-aircraft platforms to the Assad government.

It looks for all the world that the PTB are stockpiling fuels for a major intervention in Syria, and I am convinced that conflict will spill rapidly into Iran. You know Israel will not be able to resist pulling the trigger as soon as hostilities in Syria are fully engaged by the outside powers. I cannot help but think we are about to see the M.E. explode, and very soon.

NG: Caught your response. For the others, these particular tankers do not ship crude, just refined products; like the difference between water trucks and fuel trucks, you don’t mix them.

For sure Israel is getting itchy about Iran, but I believe they want to neutralize Syria first. O’bummer is backing them into a corner by not being manipulated by them and attacking Iran for Israel. Now that he has been re-elected he can tell AIPAC to kiss his ass. Israel will have to do their own dirty work as predicted by SHTF America in 2012. (See the home page).

Did you notice how that info came late on Friday, at the start of a three day weekend? It was meant to be buried and old news before anyone was the wiser.

I expect this summer will be a summer to remember …. where you were, who you were with, and what you were doing when the SHTF.

The J E W FED Knew they could further tax another half of the populace, and thus Feminism was born (see J E W Watch website for details).

Cost of living hasnt kept up with our money, being inflated away. Some choose to live GODs way and NOT take part in artificial birth control, which is Satanic.All could easily be fed IF we end the FED.

Bill, Think about it a moment before you take an otherwise good comment and make it sad. Feminism, like Civil Rights, may have curdled a bit in the implementation, but it was an idea whose time needed to come, like the earlier “all men created equal”. It needed done to keep society from further fragmenting. I would much rather have my woman be happy to be with me, and an equal, and as skilled with her trigger finger as she is with a pan, instead of being an old time style resentful slave-mate, who might freak out and kill me when the S hits the F. I still do some most of the man work, like changing motors, and she may get stuck with cooking more because she gets home earlier, but it’s far better to be equals in life than what I saw my Dad and Grandfather calling a relationship.

And as a final 2 cents: only call the police if you want a uniformed gang to mug you and steal all your supplies. When the s hits the f they will be some of the major s. Just saying’. We can’t trust more of them already and things haven’t gone wrong yet.

SPEED. Bugging out may be necessary in many different situations for countless reasons. If you can quickly get your supplies together in an organized way, this will make the difference. Many people have these permanent shelves with all or most of their supplies there. It would be a good idea if those shelves could collapse into something with wheels or that you could haul out to a truck or car with a dolly or by hand. Bug out bags are nice, but anything long term will likely have to have much more than you can put on your back.

The best situation in a dangerous situation is being able to get most of your supplies into a decent size truck. Reminds me of the way the Red Dawn characters packed that truck to the rim and out ran Soviet shells being fired. If you can have your supplies in boxes for examples, like the tough ones that fruit comes in to the grocery store from, you can stack this high and get them into a vechicle quickly. Dark boxes are more difficult to rotate food, but makes a clean dry and stackable means of getting the food and other supplies you need out quickly. Toilet paper stacks very well in these boxes for example, and keeps it dry and more likely to be completely usable when needed.

One bug out spot people never really think about are tunnels. The tunnels in mountains can be “boarded” up by people and offers one of the best places to survive nuclear war that there is, both from blast and fallout. Enough people in a local area could decide to make a tunnel nearby the place to meet in case the missiles begin flying. A lot of time also tunnels have streams and water sources close by.

Another thing to think about with bugging out is shear distance. While fleeing a super volcano may require a 2 day trip just to get out of the death zone, and 4 day to be safe, by vechicle, other trips should be considered to get somehwere within a day, or much less. I have known people that have their get away shelter hal way across the country. They say they will have time. Right!

One issue to consider also is to keep updated on the news of the world as much as possible and don’t let a vacation or other distraction allow a super mega SHTF event completely take you by surprise. Watch and keep tuned into what is happening so you have the time and the chance to bug out if you have to.

One other issue is to not let any MSM talk someone down into thinking it is all clear before or after something serious is going on. NEVER trust the news people, use your own good judgement. Don’t let your guard down until you feel you can. Again, you could lose the oportunity to be able to escape a life and death situation.

@ JustMe. The recent earthquakes have throughly shaken the planet around the entire crust. That 8.3 was over 600 km deep, and the largest ever recorded, being a deep focus earthquake. There is still plenty of indications that Chile to Mexico is going to be whacked. There is very seldom a 8+ earthquake and within 1 month another, but this time it is different. IF South America and/or Central America or Mexico had been hit with at least a low 7, I would say that the area had its earthquake. Nothing after 24 out of 26 times indications say look out. Still nothing.

When the western borders of the Nazca plate have earthquakes, it means it is on the move and ready to cause an earthquake on the coast. I checked several different spots previously that have been hit, and some of them had a major quake within 30 days 100% of the time, till now. That is a horrible sign. It means that something along that line that goes from Chile up to Central America is so locked that even with this movement on the Nazca, Scotia, Cocos, South American plates it is still locked tight. That means when something is that jammed close, when it goes LOOK OUT below, and above, crap is hitting a high velocity fan.

By the way about fallout. WW3 does not mean the end of life on the planet. Some areas will look like the movie “The Road” or “The Day After”, or even “Threads”. Other areas will look like they have simply been cut off from civilization. Unless these idiots use cobalt nukes or other highly ionizing metal, the fallout will not be nearly as severe as people think. The best way to maximize a nuke’s radius of destruction is to air burst it. This leaves very little fallout in comparison to a ground burst. IF air bursts were the radioactive, adjacent areas around Hiroshime and Nagasaki would have had radiation sickness as the wind blows. Nuclear tests that were air bursts made practically no one sick from fallout. The imbeciles that conducted the ground tests is where the people ended up downwind getting sick.

Not to say that some maniac will not salt the nuclear warheads. You would think though the goal is to have land that is usable afterwards by the winning side. Of course in war, logic is not always used. There are not that many ground burst targets. These would be the hardened sides such as missile silos or other secure military facilities. The secery Area 51 would almost certainly be ground bursts, and heavily because of the best kept military hardware that is very advanced is likely housed here.

I would not sell yourself short on being able to survive WW3, or most anyone else here. There are some pretty tough and resilient well adaptable people here.

Hate to be a bubble popper…But, I would seriously doubt anyone of us here are able to withstand WW3 in its foremost and real definition…As for being at the same place since the 60′s that would suggest ya’ll are more prepared to stay in place rather than up and bug out and never come back to home base…That scenario of staying in place will probably get ya’ll about three weeks into a true WW3…The world is now global…The world is now mobile…And that’s how the world will come at you…And to survive such an aftermath you will have to be as well…Now that’s just my opinion…But I would stake my life on it…WW3 will not be a simple run on a Wally World…Totally different kitty to play string with…

Some of the stuff is a little cray cray…But I think most is well ment…The basic over all goal around here is a good one…Its in the fringes it gets a little insane…The best preparedness in my book is to learn and put into practice a daily lifestyle of learning and living within our means, how to take care of ourselves and basically live that way NOW before we “have” to…plans and maps change too rapidly in a true situation so to me its best to be well learned and adaptable…”The 100th monkey” theory (google it) is one of the best base lines to live by…it stands the test of time…

@ Kulafarmer. Unless they salt the nukes, the radiation fallout is recoverable, especially where you are as the trade winds would take most of this up to the 30-40 degrees north and south of the equator where the air falls. there are the worst places to be for fallout, is where the air sinks, either at around 30 degrees, or towards to polar areas where the colder air is heavy and also sinks. Rising air is where the fallout will not impact much. Between 10 degrees north and south of the equator the air is almost constantly rising. At about 45-55 degrees south the air is most of the time going up and no targets here, sometimes not, bit enough rise.

Your area is basically open ocean, Hawaii will have some impact from the mountain ranges and the rainfall of some fallout after a nuclear war, but truly not that much because most targets are going to be between 30-60 degrees north. Long term effects might be a problem with some forms of cancer. Basically Hawaii and a few places in the U.S. mainland is rated as one of the safest places to be after WW3 starts in regards to fallout. The Hawaiian military bases would likely be air bursts which produced far less radiation. You are in a good spot especially with the ability to grow food year round and the oceans are of course plentiful. You are in good shape where you are for WW3.

We have Pearl harbor, Hicksm AFB and Kaneohe MCB the big island and Maui both have major sat com installations and maui has a huge Lazer,
The trades blow east to west ne to sw se to nw but the upper level and mid level generally blows the opposite, a mushroom cloud would climb to the upper level winds and the fallout would redeposit over the entire chain, this info came from a buddy who works for civil defense for the state. Definitely worst case but a real scenario they utilize for training.

@ Kulafarmer. Ask your friend about the fallout in the upper levels of the atmosphere, it takes awhile to fall back to the ground. The winds would likely deposit over the ocean by the time it came down. At least hopefully it would. Again, you would hope that they would not ground burst anything as this would be the real danger from fallout.

Great post, BeInformed! There have been sooo many instances where TPTB said all was OK, when in reality their words were bullsh-!

This past month, I took Mac’s advice and have been organizing, downsizing like mad, so when I’m ready to go, I can do it very quickly. I have tried to eliminate as much as possible all useless/unnecessary items and have things packed quite tightly/efficiently in plastic crates from Home Depot…and labelled!

What I’d actually like to have is my own moving truck! Recently, a moving company did advertize they had a truck for sale. Unfortunately, I didn’t have money for it. But if you watch alternative news carefully like you suggested, one can hopefully be on top of things and get a van in time. (Or preferably move beforehand!).

Great idea…one of those hand vac pumps makes that job and a host of others very suitable for compressed packing…
I use it on the boat all the time…
never thought to use it for this though…umm…
keeps it dry too… nothing worse than…never mind.

I just discovered wet bark for the first time this past weekend. Use the interior side, which is the smooth side. It was stored all around me, btw. Couldn’t find a broadleaf for the life of me. It sure worked better than the stinging nettle I mistakenly grabbed many years ago. (Moss, fyi, cures that stinging nettle pronto.)

when bugging out is necessary you need to be reasonably hure your never returning. you need to be convinced its the end of goverment & society as we know it. Just how much weight can you carry on your person for any considerable distance? Make that bug out bag as light as possible.medicine,first aid, vitamins, fire starting items, a knife, maybe a 22 rifle and a brick of ammo. mayb a little salt, biscuits,& jerkey.needle & thread, fishooks & line. Keep it simple & light.In a real SHTF situation only the best fit meanest craftiest with Know How & Self Reliance who have a good amount of luck will survive .Stockpiling weapons & hoarding goods in a bunker wont save you.

I live in a big ol’ house in the middle of a city. It was built in 1913 and has five bedrooms plus a semi-finished basement – but only one bath. I can’t work anymore so my wife is the primary source of income, though my daughter also helps. My grandkids – two and six – are the primary focus of our survival efforts. If TS doesn’t HTF I’ll still be dead within a few years but those two need to survive and prosper. We have two boarders who work part-time and contribute a portion of their income for the rest of the house.

Basically, we have four “families” living here so there’s no way in hell we could bug out. Instead we’re doing what we can to harden this place in the hope we can keep the bad guys at bay long enough they’ll lose interest. I don’t know if we can do that but we really don’t have a lot of choices either.

So I read all the articles describing what others have done to better their situations. I try to glean ideas that will help us but I have to skim over the suggestions of running off to a alternate “home” away from all the rioting. I can’t do that and I rather imagine there’s a lot of others in similar situations.

Instead I focus on accounts by those who have experience at baosrding up windows or screening them with heavy wire mesh. I’m looking into getting a security door for the one entrance we’ll use, having boarded up the other one. I find ways to store water, food, tools and fuel so they’ll be available with a minimum of exposure to the uncerainty of moving around outdoors.

In short, I don’t KNOW what’s going to happen so I force myself (and everybody else in the house) to prepare for an almost worst-case scenario. The worst case, of course, would be death for all of us and preparation for that is still a personal task.

Your ‘bug out’ won’t do you much good unless you have already established yourself as part of the rural community where your property is located.

The ‘local folk’ will have all access blocked and no one will be entering unless they are known to the community …. My advice is, visit the local churches around your bug out location, get to know your neighbors, and worship with them. When the SHTF you’ll be glad you did.

So true SCM.
Here in the Rockies, you won’t get into the town without knowing folks to vouch for you even with the deed to your place in your hand. I can tell you this, everyone knows everyone’s business and what they drive, even when the ranches are 10 miles apart. You will be checked out.

So many ranchers here have military members in the family or are vets themselves. Most are used to shooting 4-500 yards and know the land for miles around them.

1- Feed the neighbor’s cat….to the other neighbor’s dog.
2- Watch CNN while listening to rap music for 10 minutes. That way I won’t miss ‘civilization’.
3- Unplug the iron.
4- Write $100,000 worth of hot checks…on Bank Of America.
5- Send tweet to all my office co-workers “Ho hum, another boring day. Nothing going on…”
6- Hack medical records of every member of congress. Be creative in the various life threatening ailments each of them has. Insist they come in for further tests immediately.
7- Call Uncle Danny, confess it was me, not my cousins, who accidently set his barn on fire that time.(that was…months ago, he should be over it by now anyway)
8-Grab the three people most important in my life. Smith, Wesson, and Mrs Okie (though not in that order)
9- Send secret coded message to vital family members- ‘Tango Alpha Foxtrot with Dr School’s on a soup spoon’ They’ll know what it means.
10- Lock & load.

It is nearly impossible to just ‘bug-out’. If you are single, then not too bad. Bud if married and kids and family–then much harder.

The best way is to purchase some land and build a cabin style home of 600-800ft2. Then you have somewhere to go. Now from there, you need some bugout locales. But at least you are already there and not trying to get out of Dodge from millions of panicked and rabid folks.

im in SWFL bugging out isnt even an option you cant even get out of here a day before a hurracane ,so how would you be able to move in a SHTF ,and how will you know when its time ,its not like someone is going to step out and say ,the doctor will see you now mr smith ,i would no sooner bug out than if i was in haiti ,cuba ,or mexico leave my country ,we are americans we stand our ground ,as far as gangs buning house’s in the nieghborhood ,go on the offencive ,when they burn the first house get a few guys with scopes and give them lead poisaning there is something to be said about owning the homefront phycilogicly <(im sure i ruined that word)cold day in hell when i get up and leave hundreds of pounds of food and ammo behind for some one else so my family can die in the woods or on the side of the rode BTW if its bad enough to bug out im sure the comfortable life will be your last concern

Hey Lower40, I’ve got some bugout directions for my buddy who’s in your area. You might want to contact him, you can never have too many options. My address, mrtrumble@gmail.com. I would be happy to connect you up. Be safe.
Standing ready in Daytona

It would be interesting to see what happens if everyone does actually try to “bug out”.

Where will everyone actually go? There are few places left in CONUS that are not within 3 days walking distance of a major urban area. The golden hordes will eventually come…

Always maintain your supplies in tiers:

1) What you can expect to survive on, if you can expect to be reasonably safe staying where you are.

2) What you can quickly load into a vehicle, that will help you survive, if you have time to do so and drive away.

3) What you can pack on your back, if you are forced to go on foot.

In the article, the author seems to assume that if one leaves, one will come back to a pile of bills. I tend to think if we are forced into leaving our homes, there probably won’t be any bills to come back to, if we ever get back. Otherwise, good food for thought in the article.

Where will everyone actually go?
Water.
The end all be all of human existence.
Every lake, stream and muddy hole of rancid water will be umpteen deep with people.
Desert SW. No need to worry about the golden hordes as the desert will take care of its own. Learning to live here is a challenge. After you can master desert living nature will provide the greatest defense perimiter known to man.

Where is all ya city folk goin to go. I live in the sticks with a lot of acreage and if I see a group of people armed during a SHTF scenario I’m afraid I’m going to take yal as hostile and treat the threat accordingly. That’s something for you urbanites to think about.

middle of the everglades ,it might sound tropcal but it is far from it ,i grew up in it ,im right at home with the skeeters ,gators ,and rattlers ,now the boa’s are another thing but im sure i could get used to them to

There was a flash of light, a loud boom, and everything went dark. I actually thought that solar flare stuff had really materialized for a minute. Turns out, a bolt of lightning hit the power line near me and took the neighborhood down. I had to replace a modem and the ethernet port. I sat on the porch to watch the neighbors’ reaction. I estimate that about 90% were running out to the next town for supplies. And that’s only because we live in a hurricane zone, lest it be a larger percentage.

Find some remote Gov land with logging roads. Bury 55 gallon food grade containers with o-ring seal. Stock them with supplies. If you don’t have the money to buy all these supplies, at least pick out a area to go to with the supplies you can wheel barrel in. Study google earth and forestry maps of the area. Start dieting if you need it. Get your meds. Do it now, time is short. Any people you encounter will be there for the same reason and probably will work with you to survive. The ghetto/tweeker trash will perish in the cities as it is the only turf they are familiar with. Better to die of exposure than by looters.

The whole notion of “bugging out” is a cruel joke. Once you leave, you are a R-E-F-U-G-E-E…..and most refugees have a tough road to hoe. Most “bugee’s” are simply going to die someplace other than home.

IF you live in a place you think you’ll need to bug out from, you clearly live in the wrong place right now. So WHY the heck do you live there ? Move.

“I’m going to live in the woods and off the land”…..yeah….right, you and all the other Rambo’s…….until your Spam runs out, and you starve to death, because everything that walks, crawls or flies has already been eaten by some other emaciated Rambo wannabe.

“I’m going to my pre-set up remote cabin”….where I’ll find out how much of a learning curve there is to actually living LONG TERM at my remote cabin…and again, once the food runs out, it’s Donner Pass.

“I’m going to my family out in “XXX” where they have a small farm and will welcome the help”…..OK…THAT one has a shot at bug out, assuming they can actually GET THERE in one piece….and bring a Mayflower van or two of stuff with them ( or pre-positioned ), as most likely family isn’t set up for long term residents…and we all know fish and company both get old after about 3 days.

Bugging out is for those who have had the foresite to prepare a place to bug out to.

The bug out location should have everything you need, pre-positioned in place, to survive for an extended period of time, perhaps a year or more. Access to potable water is crucial as is being away from a main highway. No one can survive multiple gunfights.

You only have one chance to Get Out Of Dodge and unless you own a semi truck and trailer that is already packed and ready to go, you will cannot carry enough supplies to survive for an extended period of time.

Good points TnAndy. I personally think getting anywhere in a crisis is going to be harder than living there, and it will be awesome hard to survive in any rural wooded area that is suddenly no longer rural. Most successful bugs will arrive long before the panic hits the rest.

Others have probably thought of this but bugging is not one size fits all, nor on every life changing scenario. For instance, the recent OK tornado. No matter how prep you were: destroyed. A few yards away, partially. They had almost 16 minutes to get a mile away, if they were alert, but you’re not going to have supplies back home. No amount of guns and ammo would protect one over that.

I think people tend to prep for The Big One and forget it might be a little one (storm, hunker down for some but that won’t cut it in others) followed by a banking scare, followed by rioting, and still no Full End Times, just a series of minor heart attack like events that can be harder to plan for, and survive, than one single big ‘obviously seen coming’ event. Most important of all: our bodies won’t make it forever no matter how precise our planning. Prep for soul survival too.

The tougher the environment, the less people you will run into. In the northern high mountains, you become part of the food chain. Have a gun. I could care less about the people who have the $$$ to prep, but don’t. I would help out the ones that wanted to prep or have to bug out but did not have the income to prep. to a degree.

The Mountain Williams and Peggy Sues are unlikely to turn to each other with evident joy and proclaim the arrival of paper pushing yuppie hordes ascending upon them from suburban northern virginia.

“Welcome, Flatlanders. Peggy Sue will show you to your rooms. Dinner is at 6. Breakfast will be at 0500. We will assign you mandatory wood chopping, hog slopping and ditch digging chores if you expect to be invited to lunch. Rule Number One here is those who do not work do not eat. The gate is behind you ifn you don’t like that.”

The half dozen major commuting roads are a mess every weekday. Given half an inch of rain or snow they barely move. Can you imagine a million panicked people trying to “bug out?”

If someone lives in a yuppie condo above Metro Center, the subway transfer point in DC, they better get out of there. Otherwise, I think the “Bug Out” stuff is prepper fairy tales. It is neither helpful nor necessary FOR EVERYONE. One size advice most definitely does NOT fit all.

Where are ya gonna go? You’re going to be an ambush target every step of the way. What are you going to do for food, water and fuel? Do you know anyone there, do you have any natural allies? Are you going to fight the other 29,000 suddenly desperate never hunteds for Bambi and those succulent berries? What are you going to do if your vehicle breaks down half way there?

Bug Out, bug out to where??? If you don’t have a place to go where you know ever one an, “are a part of the community”,your not well come. As Lt. Dan said in the last story. Rural people “armed to the teeth” Don’t want you.

Everyone really needs to set down and think.1) you and your wife or partner have got to be on the same page or it will be total mayhem. 2) You will need way more than a bug out bag unless it’s a natural disaster. 3) If you bug out, where will you go; have you pre-planned your destination. 4) If you bug out due to a financial collapse; there will be no coming back period, because once you’ve surrendered the hill there is no reclaiming it, at least not alone 5) In my opinion; if you have a place in a rule area, I suggest you stock both of them equally. One in case you have to stay and one if you have to get away. You need to travel as light as possible, and as most of you well know, there are too many things to consider with a cluttered mind in the event of an emergency

I’m sorry to say this, but if you’re truly relying on grocery stores and all the “nice” things in life you’ve probably lived a very comfortable life of non suffering. I’ve spent over a year homeless. I can easily live out of my pack if I need to, and that also means making sure a dog is fed.

What you really need to do instead of worrying about planning is learning something. Learn to grow food. Go learn about the plants in the areas you’ll possibly be in. Learn that trapping is easier than hunting. Forgo your normal diet and eat what ever the hell comes around because you need it. Purify water in multiple ways.

Want to know if you will survive? Next time there’s gonna be a few days of rain in your area go out in the woods with pretty much nothing. Sure you’ll be cold as hell and hate life, but you will learn something about yourself that you never imagined. You won’t die for the most part so don’t be dumb about doing that.

No two people or families will have the same situation if a crisis occurs and the SHTF. No one set of advice will/would work for everyone. You need to look at your own particular situation and make a plan. In a bug out situation, Safety, Transportation, Water, and food are your priorities, in that order. If you have studied your situation and planned accordingly, then a close watchful eye in tyhe alternative media should alert you in time to a situation needing for you to Bug-Out. I agree with JustMe above, in that you need to teir your preperations.
If you can afford a small used 4×8 foot trailer (About $500 in my neck of the woods), you can store all of your provisions,Equipment, Etc., except for parishable foods. That way, if SHTF quick, to toss on your food, hook-up to the car/truck, and be gone quickly. A bicycle for each person can be strapped to the trailer if your vehicle becomes inoperable. Not really for riding, but to lash on as much of your food and equipment as you can to the bike, and walk it to your destination. Just some ideas..

I bought a “teardrop” camper for exactly that purpose. I even had a hitch put on my smaller car . The little camper has a battery for lights and a fan, a kitchen area,propane stove and bed . Even crammed with a anything and everything, I can still tow it easy . I’m Saving my monies right now to solar power it. Funny thing, I bought it off an elderly gentleman who told me he and his wife where moving to Tennessee after watching that Oblamer movie . Imagine that.

Unless one is a Marine/Special Forces/or well trained survivalist in every imaginable skilset to survive…forget it..

This romantic nonsense of escaping the hordes is ludicrous at best.!!!

I know not one of you personally,but do have family and friends who were and are well trained in survival..
It takes years of conditioning unless you are some kind of hollywood moniker who survives the wild on the picture screen..

One best have every type of ammo available in the thousands of rounds just to survive the wilderness,never mind the former military and mercenaries who will be abound in your neck of the woods sooner or later should the shtf happen.

Im fighting for what I own where I know the ground and the funnels, weak spots and strong spots.. I could go on and on..but I wont.
those that bug out before its time to do so will be cannon fodder for sure.
the only time im going to get on the move is when supplies are depleated, and the numbers of runners are lowered.
until then im entrenched deep

VRF
I am staying put. Lots of things to take into account.
When to engage and when not to engage. Who am I engaging? Street thugs or MERC’s for example. What can I deploy to scare the hell out of them to go away. In the end it is, Firepower, Firepower, Firepower and lots of it.
Hell, shot them with a simple Marine Flare gun round.

Knowing your surroundings and all the weak and strong points..especially water,cover,high and low ground etc are essential…we know every square inch of our area as hike and walk all the time here..there is fresh water to drink,wildlife,plenty of woods,edible plants etc etc..

You then have the advantage even if out manned or out gunned..

We are staying put..this is our home..we have grandchildren and twins on the way here in town..no way in hell would I ever abandon my family for my own survival..

possee, The county I live in here in NC has the highest number of veterans in the state with one exception, the Fort Bragg area. I think this bodes well for those bugging in. Many are very well armed and well stocked. We will do our best to defend our county.

I’m bugging in, but have a small back room setup available elsewhere, just in case. The room is in a commercial space no longer used, vacant and vacant looking. No visible entrance. None. Food, water, air and camouflage. Access to other things privately.

Better get head screwed on tight for that decision. Bugging out may NOT be for all of us. Are you able to go for long periods of time without a bath. Those that want to be more mobile, can you endure the cold and heat in a tent. Then you have bugs that bite then itch and may become infected. Snakes, bears, wild boar, coyotes, spiders, fire ants, chiggers and scorpions. I have met them all. Build a fire in the rain and wind. Endure the night without light. Having to do without the luxuries that once were at your fingertips. If you have not done any long term primitive camping/hunting, you are in for a big surprise.
The point to bug in is not that much better when you have idiots shooting out street lights and power transformers to hide in the dark. Also you do not want to be caught in transit to your secondary bug out location.
In either case, to stay or go, you must be determined to defend what you have and your lives. And I do not think the majority has dealt with that aspect. Most have not killed anything. We must be able to deal with it from the get go. DEATH and the act of Killing. This will not be a video game. This time the target shoots back.

Gott’a say; this bug-out is cool. Am in a condo within walking distance of a couple of markets and restaurants and TV showing the world at its worse. O.K.; I’m a bit early, but better a year early than one day too late.

“What if someone off in the distance sees smoke and calls 911 to report a forest fire?”
Right off the bat this statement shows the writer has Zip, Zero, Nada realization of what will happen if a “bug out” situation is called for.

In fact, turning this whole SHTF topic into one of mental masturbation via the academia approach of this article is a disservice to all who read it except to show how delusional people can get about their chances to survive such a situation. This writer would be better off swallowing a whole bottle of Barney Fife pills in order to get through the tough times.

After living through the LA riots in 1992 where my dysfunctional city went up in flames, all the roads led to nowhere for a few days, the police and firefighters were overwhelmed, reading this ‘fantasy’ stuff is nauseating. And not even close to realty.

You want a taste of what life will be like? Do this…Go to a strange town where you’re ethnically a minority, or better yet, an ethnic outcast. Find the worst run down bar in the worst part of that town. Someplace where even the cops won’t bother to patrol. Go in and have a few drinks by yourself sallied up to the bar where everyone can see you.

Now, if you’re too scared to pull that exercise off I’ve got a clue for you…your chances of survival are just about nil.

But that’s crazy you say, why take a chance like that? Why put yourself needlessly in harms way doing that? I’ll tell you why…

Because you as a person have gut instincts that will overrule your desire to ‘follow your plan’. When the time comes if you’ve never stretched your fear past your comfort zone your odds of survival plummet. There will be very few ‘niceties’ like you’re used to in your ordinary life. Cities will be war zones just like LA was back in 1992.

Do yourself another favor…Head on over to LiveLeak and watch some of those videos coming out of Syria. They’re uncensored. Just like what life will be when the SHTF. Then ask yourself, “how many of those folks are following their ‘bug out plan’ they created in the comfort of their living room during good times romantically fantasizing about what life will be like when SHTF?” The answer, of course, is none of them.

Here’s the bottom line…LA took 45 minutes to completely disintegrate from daily life to absolute anarchy back in 1992. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. Get it?

You want to ‘get on the road’, get to your ‘bug out hide away’, follow your plan? Sorry, not gonna happen. The definition of Life is: Life is what’s happening to you while you’re making other plans.

Now I know a lot of readers here will junk me for this post, but they weren’t there when my butt was saved by having a 12 ga shotgun when I found myself in a bad spot back in 1992. They probably won’t go into those bars like I described but I’ve been going into those same kind of places since the seventies. I’m not saying that as a brag, that’s just the way life turned out for me. Being poor has its’ edge when prosperity is seen as the demon. I’m not poor now, but there was a time when I had to live off my wits without sacrificing my principles. That time is coming for a lot of folks in the not too distant future.

I’m not going to rip you. Forty-Five minutes! I try to work out time lines to see just how much time I would have to put up defenses. Figuring out how fast it spreads from the epicenter. In some cases it could be nation wide like the stoppage of SNAP checks or bank closures. Sure is an eye opener.

It was that knowledge that propelled me & the bat woman from Sydney to Tasmania in 96. Paid for our 100 acres on an island with a 300 k wide moat and shifted in 98. Built the first part of the house in 99 and have been improving ever since. Got to know the neighbours, and we are all of similar mind. We will never starve, have a diverse range of skills, and could fall back to a defendable position if we had to.

We have food in abundance, and so do enough of our neighbours to make a difference. We are far enough of the main roads to scare townies on foot, and by the time they get close they will definitely be on foot. (There is tomatoe relish cooking on the wood stove next to me right now, for the neighbour who still needs to learn that skill. he has the horses, and she is the chook expert.)

Bluntly, unless you are well away from major cities you are screwed. If you are not welcome at your neighbours anytime without an invite you are screwed. If you cannot survive without power you are screwed. If you cannot survive without going to the shop once a week you are screwed.

We do not have a house cow, but within a week one of the beef cows would be learning real quik that you can have all the hay you want if you let me pull your tits. It is this sort of preparedness that is required. If you need a bugout bag you are not prepared. IMHO.

I agree, the author has no clue. I really don’t think the law is coming to your rescue, and if your cell phone worked the law would be the last person I would call. Then he goes on to say you couldn’t build a fire (yeah you could, a Dakota fire) how would you stay warm, I would find some big rocks put them in the fire then before bed time let them cool a bit & put them in the bottom of my sleeping bag.
Nate had a lot of good points, hard times expierences makes surviving easier.

Dave S,
I didn’t want to say anything negative out of deference to Mac.
and I certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from “gaming” their particular situation and all the variables that go with it..
But I have to say, you are spot on in your assessment…

I remember 1992 and the majority of the police, fire department, etc were told to stand down and not take action. This wasn’t publicized that much but that’s the reason that it got out of control. Also, a lot of people who were community activists were targeted by thugs (I wonder who sent them). The majority of those people have left Los Angeles back in 90′s and very few are left.

I remember 1992 and the majority of the police, fire department, etc were told to stand down and not take action. This wasn’t publicized that much but that’s the reason that it got out of control. Also, a lot of people who were community activists were targeted by thugs (I wonder who sent them). The majority of those people have left Los Angeles back in 90′s and very few are left.rjsl55@yahoo.com

Bugging out scares the daylights out of me. I am not a softie and have camped, roughed it when my children were small in the middle of the woods. At night we could see all these eyes shining in the dark at us. A bear had come thru one night and left the bark clawed off of a tree near our tent.
I have better sense now and would not camp out in my back yard.
There is no way a person, or people can carry enough equipment to survive long term in a shtf situation.
I’ll take my chances where I am.
The people in my small town know each other. My husband is well known, our neighbors all know each other very well and are all hunters which means there are guns, ammunition and they know how to use them. We don’t live in town but about 2 miles out.
I think I am safer here than being attacted by some wild animal, snake, black widow spider, drinking bad water, getting diarrhea and God forbid poison ivy, and even worse,running up on a gang of refugees.
One of those bags to get back home would be nice. The longest distance we would have to go would be 20 miles.
This article does give you food for thought and was well written.

I have a wife, a 2yr old son and a 4yr old son plus elderly parents and other family members. Yep, bugging out on the side of the mountain sounds like a great idea. If I want to live a short miserble life that is.
Personally, I am preparing to stay home. I could go to our farm and live in the barn but I prefer my nice comfy bed and solid walls.
So if I am not going to run, then I have to prepare. Sure, I have food, medical supplies, fire-arms with plenty of ammo,etc but it doesn’t end there. I live on an acre lot with 8 full-size apple trees but thats not enough. So I have planted another dozen or so fruit and nut trees in my yard. I have also planted 6 honey berries,5 blue berries, raspberries, strawberries, and other plants. I and my wife have ripped up flower beds and built raised beds to garden in. Am I done, nope. I am sure I can find places for other plants. however, my wife is begginng to think I might be going overboard. Also, I bought a book about edible plants in my area as well as one for medicinal plants since there wont be many doctors around. You may not want to eat the wild plants or use them for medicinal purposes now but if a SHTF scenario happens, it may help you extend your food supply and save your life or a loved one.
There is a good size river at the bottem of my neighborhood and a small spring at the end of my drive-way ,so water is easily available and plenty of fish. Just have to be sure to have plenty of fishing gear. Also, I have a 24ft diameter pool so I have plenty of water that can be used for things such as laundry. Also, East Tennessee is blessed with over 40 inches of rain a year so I also have a source of fresh water. It is amazing how much water you could get by digging a 3ft by 3ft hole in the ground and covering a 24 ft diameter area or so with plastic and then waiting on rain. Just a half inch of rain would give you plenty of fresh water. Even the morning due will give you more than you think. So for folks with plenty of rivers, streams, etc in your area, make sure you have a way making the water drinkable.
I could go on and on about one supply after another but you get the point. Look at what is around you and available. Always add to your supplies. Remember,by starting now, it is a marathon not a sprint to get prepared but your time is running out. What a person needs to stockpile in the desert to survive is not going to be the same as someone in my area so consider your area and what nature already provides you.
However, one of the most important things you can do is talk to your neighbors. You don’t use words like prepping at first unless you want to get turned into the authorities when describing why you are planting more fruit trees that a normal person would have or whatever else you are doing. Use phrases like “have you seen the prices of food at the grocery store lately” and so forth. If you can get your neighbors to think with their wallet you will be more successfull. IF you can get your neighbors to garden and plants fruit trees and so forth, you are helping them prep without them realizing it which helps you.
Personally, I totally agree, the longer you can stay in your house, the better.

I have spent many long periods in the woods, both with groups and by myself .
Often, I have taken folks to go camping with me who have never been away from a her and roof during their entire lives .
So many city folk have said something along the lines of I would like to try living out here .
I always ask how long .
And offer to leave them an come back to bury their stinking carcass later .
They don’t understand .
Never mind how fast the berries would run out .
I figure that between the bugs, snakes, and drinking the water from the local streams and rivers don’t kill them, exposure will .
So many think they can load up and drive somewhere in some close national forest and survive.
And with some long term planning and effort, some may well make it .

But the key is in the long term preparations and planning .
I would say the city folk need to either have a remote location already stocked and waiting, or have a connection to someone already there expecting them .

If your plan is to drive away with no definite place to go, I would not attempt it unless sure death would happen if you stay where you are already .

The woods are dangerous enough already .
And in a shtf situation, the danger level would rise exponentially ..

i agree with tnAndy. i think bugging out will be ridiculously hard.(even for those of us with 4×4′s)
these youtube videos with people who have tons of gear, and guns.. these people are also obese.
the best way to be prepared to bug out, in my opinion, are simple.
1. be able to walk at least 20 miles without stopping.
2. be able to jog at least 5 miles(a few times a day).
3. carry simple/light things: matches,small first aid, water filter, a book on edible plants in your area, knife, bug spray, 5 protein bars, and a pistol with 1 box of ammo-for emergency situations only.(id also carry 3-4 of those 5-hour energys.) and extra socks-blisters will stop you.
4. make it look like youre a rioter, not a prepper. wear nikes, jeans, t-shirt.

i know this is hard for many of us, but im in my 20′s, so this is my plan.

You raise a good point about blending in. I am hanging on to old faded shirts, worn jeans and old shoes in case I have to blend in with those around me. Going outside in good-condition clothing after the dust settles may invite ne’er-do-wells of all kinds.

The reason nobody lives out in the woods you want to bug out to is: “You cannot live there”. If you could somebody would. If you figure to just drive your RV to a deserted spot and hide for a few weeks, fine. Indeed for some outcomes that may be a very good idea. One site: “James M Dakin” Talks about living in a dugout in Nevada and living on wheat; he’s doing it. To Bug out to a flat spot and figure you can live there is a sure loss. Better stay home and fight it out.

I bought after 9/11 my bug out location and have been hardening and prepping since…”I’m not going anywhere”. This property can maintain produce small live stock fed by an underground spring with 2 generator systems my own septic and complete shop to fabricate and build anything…BTW it is a great tactical location on a hill surrounded by forest and apple orchards wild game strolls through all the time.

I’m sorry folks for not agreeing with you on bugging in instead of bugging out… Bugging out for my family is a sure plan B. I’m sorry for busting this person’s thread but I cant take much more of it

Let me explain.

After 3 tours and endless weekend warrior games with fellow marines, I soon realize that our little homes that many think they’ll be able to defend with all of their guns and ammo etc. need a wake-up call!

Go ahead and stock your house with years of food and all that comes with that… That money you spent could of been spent on a second location or something so quit crying about not having a second location. Your FAULT not mine! During WAR, our unit was task to search for bad guys and get intel. When we stumbled across a home that fit our description and started taking fire, most of us said, “F-this”. BURN THEIR ASSES OUT THEN SHOOT THEM!!!!

The point I’m trying to make here is, your thousands of dollars worth of preps aren’t shit to a mayo jar with gas being thrown at your wood built home to make your ass come out to only watch your preps BURN! BURN! BURN!

Ruling out not leaving when you need to is foolish. How many of you talked shit about people who stayed to defend their homes when ask to leave??? How many of you said, “Well, its their own dam fault for staying”

Look at the clips of people rioting, there throwing gas filled bottles at the police or they set fire to the homes… WAKE UP

42 days til we move to our BOL!!!!! But who’s counting? The only event we won’t survive is a major flood. Otherwise we are way above the average joe. And yes, married to a green beret.

But what amazes my husband and I are how many preppers we meet who are full of shit. They call themselves preppers bc they have 3 months worth of food. I think that’s a fantastic start but like someone here already said, you need to learn how to be self sufficient. Period! Learn how to grow your own food, what’s your food source going to be? Do you know how to build a reliable shelter? When all the game in the forests are killed, do you know how to fish? Raise your own animals? I could go on and on.

I think most of you give humans too much credit. There may be hoards of people, but these idiots today don’t even know how to make clean drinking water. A few may find our BOL, but they are stupid for the most part. When something happens, so many people are goin to die that first year because we as a civilization any remember how to survive.

Ill he the first to admit that I have never been in combat, but I’ve hiked the AT for six months, raised a garden, prepped a kick ass BOL, so who knows who’s right.

All I’m saying is that even people we have met who consider themselves preppers are full of shit, if they are full of shit, where are all these people who are going to first find our BOL?

No doubt. We all know that even though we have tried to prepare and warn others, we could be those early-birds that parish. How do you prepare for WWIII? Or a Drone? Or how do we prepare for massive gangs or commandos from another country? We really cannot.

What we can do is try and not play their game 100%

I am trying. I have cashed in 2 mutual funds. I will cash in one more. I will leave one in. Why? Well because whether we like it or not, we have played the dollar game. We must still pay our bills with dollars.

How do we win some? Get debt down and don’t buy too much of their goods.

But the World is small. With satellite imagery and drones and cameras, we are being watched everywhere. Even the bugout locales are known now. There are no secret hiding spots unless you want to jump in a volcano!

It is a sobering thought that even 60% of us bloggers on SHTF could be gone within 10 years.

I am just glad to have a voice with others that see the same things coming. Whether I win or not, at least I got my ideas and thoughts off my chest to others. And I listened to others as well….

Great to have confidence, but don’t think for a second that one or more in your awesome party of preppers won’t need the help from somebody outside the group. All it takes is a stumble and a torn ACL/MCL, rattlesnake bite, food poisoning, Botulism, Tetanus, pneumonia, etc. It is great that you are so far ahead of everybody else, but you might stay a little humble to the fact that communities exist for a reason. A lone wolf that makes it to age of 92 has lost a lot of friends along the way and luck has played it’s part. Maybe some of these people that you meet that are so full of shit will have some knowledge or expertise that you need at some point. Just sayin.

Villages were created because isolated homesteads were too easy to attack. No mutual aid available. An isolated BOL may be better than an apartment in the city, but isolated does not mean unknown. Even if you’re part of a group large enough to create an isolated village, a handful of guys with rifles can grind you down. If you’ve been to the sandbox you know that tune well.

People haven’t been completely self sufficient since the stone/iron age. Even mountian men resupplied when possible, and they had short life spans.

And something else we do is everything is done in layers. One example is drinking water. We have a carport that collects water when it rains and goes into a water tank. We also have a spring fed pond and hand pump well. We are about to get a windmill to fill another water tank. So 3 layers for just water.

When you are prepping. Try to plan things in layers so when one system fails you have back ups.

Just look at your food cellar. Could you bug out with that? It has amazed me just how much space my canned goods have taken up for just a 4 month supply for 7. My goal is 6 months.

That is why I joked that a bug-out bag almost needs to be a U-Haul.

We all need to learn more, especially the edible foods in nature. I will eat my first cat-tail root soon. The new shoots have finally shown. Then later, I will eat the flower. Been eating many dandelion tops. I am experimenting on myself first before I teach my family.

Finally ran my Marathon this year. Ran a 3:11. Slower than last year, but not bad for a 52 year old. Will do more.

Also, don’t forget the perennials. Plant them. Good luck, the Day is coming. Maranatha!!!!

Home Despot et al will soon be clearing out all of their gardening type stuff. Last year I got large tomato cages with a bent or broken wire at Lowe’s for $1. Galvanized wire. Will last as long as I will.

Linda Runyon’s book and cards are invaluable…
I especially liked her method for testing toxicity. Without anybody having written much about edible tropical plants easily recognized, the method has proven to be effective.

a problem i saw with this article is, when he said “how would you stay warm, or cook your kill? what if someone calls 911 to report a forest fire?”
the problem is.. if 911 is responding to forest fires- then SHTF hasnt REALLY happened.
anyways.. has anyone noticed how the bird flu is not in the news as much since we heard about it being airborne? i smell cover up

You find this type of article about bugging out from time to time. Its main theme is a straw man argument about bugging out. Clearly to bug out to nowhere means refugee status, which while preferable to death, is still pretty grim. To have a bug out strategy is to have a bug out to location, a bug out to route and a bug out to do plan. Just leaving your home haphazardly is evacuation, not bugging out.

Perhaps some people mean refugee bag when they say bug out bag, I don’t. My bag buys me three days for my trip to my first cache a days walk away. My bag is a last resort if my loaded car can’t make the short drive to my bug out location. My location is as well stocked as my house (monitored 24/7) and has a well, arable land, and FEW neighbor, who largely are self sufficient already.

Is bugging in a good idea? Logistically sure! But how well do you know your town? Any gangs operating in it? How about drug dealers and/or druggies? Any targets of interest or major migration routes around it? What is the population density, and availability of food or water without deliveries or power? What is the Character of most of your neighbors? These are questions you need to ask when considering bugging in.

You are correct that bugging out is largely about timing and logistically dangerous, however might I suggest in a SHTF perhaps bugging in may also be about timing and logistically dangerous! Perhaps that is the nature of SHTF. Its untrue however that if you bug out early, you wreck your life. Most of us have sick days, so if you bug out and are wrong call in sick. Most of the time there will be some lag time between discovery of a problem, panic, and an organized government response. The ideal is to accurately identifying the problem and acting on it sooner rather than later, but even if you are behind the curve a plan buys you time and options. Bugging in always remains an option until you bug out, and even the chances are you could turn back. That being said returning to your home presumes that the rule of law has been restored or that your bug out plan failed, if the former who cares if your house has been destroyed–insurance will cover it-if the latter and you come back to a ransacked home what’s to say not being there didn’t save you life?

Finally don’t think that you need to be uber wealthy to have a bug out plan complete with bug out home. Think friends, think family, think people who can use your help financially now who can help you survive later!

I personally have no plans on bugging out. Home is where the…preps…is. My plan is to go to lockdown mode, protect my family. I know my neighbors and they know me. To become a refugee is not an option for me and mine.

BI, thanks for the continued updates on the quake situation. I have relatives in California and gave them a heads up on your updates. Thank you.

The clock is ticking closer to the point of SHTF. There are sooooo many different ways it could happen now…financial collapse, EMP from an active sun, multiple quakes, middle east escalating…etc.

Whether your plan is to bug in our bug out, like tmedlin said up top first comment, make your decision and start working towards preparedness for your plan.

It takes me 1.5 minutes to be on the road with my BOV, BOB, and day pack. 15 minutes gives me enough time to load my ammo, meds, comms, and emergency bulk foods. 30 minutes to load up the food, ammo, and weapons at my nearby cache, and 45-50 minutes to load up my pantry and tools. How do I know? Because I have practiced it. In fact, I have practiced most contingencies except (granted) the worst, walking it, simply because I don’t have the 30 days that would take to spare. But regular hikes of 5-20 miles with a pack, make me pretty certain I could keep up the 10 mile a day pace needed to get there in less than a month, walking.

Whatever state of preparedness I leave town with, a few hours drive later I am 100 miles from the nearest major city, 20 miles from population density of any significance, and completely off the beaten trail secluded by significant natural barriers. There is a reason why Switzerland has managed to remain free and largely neutral during centuries of conflict, they are well armed and hard to get at.

My recommendation is think hard and long about bugging in, or out, and then make a bug out PLAN anyway. Option Z as the author calls it, is to leave your home with no plan at all, why not take option Z off the table and instead consider option BO. Have a plan, even if it’s at the bottom of your list of preferences! And don’t just have a plan, practice it!

People often make out as if bugging out means leaving everything you have behind, why not take it with you? Practice loading up your vehicles, you will learn a lot of things that will speed up the process such as which pieces of furniture needs to be moved? which doors should be lashed open, which prepps need to be packed differently to move, and how long it will take you to Bug out. Practice rallying at a common point if you have a group, and consider who will preform what tasks for bug out if necessary. Practice routes, during rush hour if possible, looking for alternate routes as well as tactically dangerous points on your route. These things can get you on the road fast and loaded up with much of what you have at home.

It takes me 1.5 minutes to be on the road with my BOV, BOB, and day pack. 15 minutes gives me enough time to load my ammo, meds, comms, and emergency bulk foods. 30 minutes to load up the food, ammo, and weapons at my nearby cache, and 45-50 minutes to load up my pantry and tools. How do I know? Because I have practiced it. In fact, I have practiced most contingencies except (granted) the worst, walking it, simply because I don’t have the 30 days that would take to spare. But regular hikes of 5-20 miles with a pack, make me pretty certain I could keep up the 10 mile a day pace needed to get there in less than a month, walking.

Whatever state of preparedness I leave town with, a few hours drive later I am 100 miles from the nearest major city, 20 miles from population density of any significance, and completely off the beaten trail secluded by significant natural barriers. There is a reason why Switzerland has managed to remain free and largely neutral during centuries of conflict, they are well armed and hard to get at.

My recommendation is think hard and long about bugging in, or out, and then make a bug out PLAN anyway. Option Z as the author calls it, is to leave your home with no plan at all, why not take option Z off the table and instead consider option BO. Have a plan, even if it’s at the bottom of your list of preferences! And don’t just have a plan, practice it!

People often make out as if bugging out means leaving everything you have behind, why not take it with you? Practice loading up your vehicles, you will learn a lot of things that will speed up the process such as which pieces of furniture needs to be moved? which doors should be lashed open, which prepps need to be packed differently to move, and how long it will take you to Bug out. Practice rallying at a common point if you have a group, and consider who will preform what tasks for bug out if necessary. Practice routes, during rush hour if possible, looking for alternate routes as well as tactically dangerous points on your route. These things can get you on the road fast and loaded up with much of what you have at home.

Everyone living in a city that is a prepper should have a emergency bug out plan in place. IF the food and water runs out or you get burned out, you Have to leave. Odds of survival deep in the mountains are very slim to none, but thats still better than the alternative. If you do end up in the mountains, prep all summer for the winter. shelter constuction, firewood and root gathering etc. If there was only one item I could bring besides my gun,(I dont go ANYwhere without it) it would be salt.

OK, here’s my take. While bugging out does carry its own risks, that’s my plan provided no EMP fries the computer on my truck. A month ago I made a trip to one of my relative’s places in north GA and made a deal with her for a BOL. Took half of my supplies with me and have them stored there just in case. Have 4 5-gal. cans of extra gas to guarantee I make it all the way there. she and her family have gardens and raise a lot of their own food and also do a lot of hunting to supplement their food supply. They all grew up on farms, so growing food is 2nd nature to them. They all learned how to handle firearms at the earliest possible age and have been hunting, fishing, foraging, etc. since they were kids. They’ve always been more self-sufficient than I’ve been; they are true preppers. I’ve always wanted to get out of the city but been turned down for mortgages several times. If an EMP hits, I’ll be bugging in because of no other choice. I know my chances would be slim to none in an urban area, but it could happen. I won’t go down without one helluva fight. Something is coming and soon; I can feel it in the air. After reading all of BI’s and JOG’s reports on earthquake and solar actvity, I can’t believe that mega-SHTF WON’T happen this summer; no way we’ll get through summer without something happening. None of us can know how it’s going to happen until it does. It will be the biggest challenge of all of our lives and life in this nation as we know it will never be the same again. Only question will be how many preppers will still be alive when the dust finally settles. I think it’s a safe bet that none of the 99% of the population who HAVEN’T prepped will be alive. In the last chapter of “One Second After”, it was estimated 1 year after the EMP struck that only 30,000,000 out of 330,000,000 people were still alive and that was only an estimate. My feeling is that the true figure will be much less than 30,000,000. although “One Second After” was a work of fiction, it could damned well become real. God began passing judgment on this country decades ago and we’ve got a helluva long way to go before He is finished. I truly dread what’s coming. I don’t know if I’ll make it all the way through, but i’ll damned sure give it my best shot. braveheart

I`ve been a survivalist/prepper for a long time. If I had a nickle for every time someone said the end was just around the corner I`d have my own private island by now. War with Iran has been just around the corner since the 80`s. Bird flu is gonna outbreak any day now. Economic collapse in the next year…lol….Bunch of chicken littles. My advice is prepare for the worst but pray to God it doesn’t happen in your lifetime. In the meantime enjoy your life.

@sm Agree completely with the idea of living your life and not the ‘prepper lifestyle’. If there’s no time to enjoy life, what are you prepping for? As far as a BOL, its where you go to live, not die. Extremes are dangerous in either direction.

Something to consider when civil unrest comes to our door is intensity and duration. During this period of time many things will happen and we will see and hear them. The amount of gunshots. Buildings being put to the torch. Sirens. Cars doing excessive speed. People yelling and screaming. Explosions. Dogs barking. Glass breaking and Helos in the air above us. Your streets may have people standing around or become a ghost town.
My best expectation is that it burns out in no more than 90 days. Considering that more are arm armed then before, the stupid/criminals, types will be shot. Most will feel the pain of hunger and grow weak. Their ammo wasted, supplies at the low end. The most dangerous time is when the desperate come out of their holdups. We should be mindful of the peaks and valleys in violence and what they mean. If we do pass three months the damage done may not be reversible.

Attention all you overweight , out of shape, medication dependent soldier wanna be’s: there will be no bugging out, just economic misery with high crime. Very few of you would survive leaving your remote control behind heading to some fantasy bug out utopia.

I say that you stay put in familiar environment at least 3 months (if you don’t live in a high rise that is). Let millions die off, then see what is next. I know I would not make it in the wild with wife and 4 kids vs. all the Rambo types. Now if many of them kill each other off, maybe we have a shot at things after this. Also many in need of urgent medical care/supplies are dead as well. This just keeps decreasing competition. These remote cabins we all hear about will soon not be very remote as many will stumble upon them randomly and try to take them for themselves. Yep, we are staying put. I will take my chances with preps and arms. I will arm my neighbors if need be as well. I understand they are stupid but I like them and will work with what I need to survive.

If things go south suddenly, most of us will form loose mutual aid pacts with people close to us, and constantly have to be on the lookout for a doublecross. I find the idea of a remote survival commune a little unsettling.

Bugging out or bugging in depends on where you live and what your resources are. If you live in suburb of a big city then bugging in is not an option because ghetto dwellers will go house to house in search of food after it hits the fan.

I live in a small town in the midwest. I can’t afford a bug out location so we our preps are in the house. When it hits the fan I’ll draw the blinds, close the curtains, and put plywood in front of the windows at night so no light escapes. We won’t answer the door or go outside except at 3am to dump buckets of poo.

Since all of the crazies are “bugging out”,few know where to or why. I think I’ll “bug in”. All the whack jobs will be “in the woods”, “on the road”, or out of gas at the closed truck stop. If they are “in the woods” they’ll be learning how to kill bambi with a .22 and skin it with a 1.5″ swiss army knife — and then have no clue what to do with it—-OH! They will have parachute cord,a flint and steel,a empty water bottle and three bandaids and their smart phone with no charger. They’ll be fine I’m sure.

1. Global catastrophe, mega-quake, ww3, asteroid, yellowstone explodes; whatever. Preps will keep you a bit more comfortable for a time but they really should include a humane and painless means of suicide as an option. I’m talking the end of the world. No preps or BOL will really help very much.

2. End of civilization as we know it. This could be a catastrophe like a virus or emp attack that destroys the government to the point where they could not even manage a martial law situation. Preps will be a bridge to a very different lifestyle and if we prep for *that*, I think we could actually build something pretty good if we are willing to work together in communities. A chance to rebuild and learn from our mistakes. It will be very difficult, we’ll be hungry, die young, work harder than we thought possible, but it won’t be war. Bugging out in this scenario is basically just to avoid the chaos of the urban areas and regroup with your network.

3. Societal breakdown. This will be the most likely and I think the most difficult. I’m thinking a financial collapse or essentially a ‘hostile takeover’ of our assets by a foreign power or powers. BRIC conspires to take us out or a black swan collapse of world economies. Basically, a scenario where commerce would come to a halt, but our government remains fully intact. The country will divide into two types of zones: very rural where folks will be more or less left alone, simply because ‘government’ won’t have the ability to police it effectively, they will be too busy managing huge urban areas as FEMA camps, defacto or actual martial law will exist in these areas, strict laws regarding food distribution, black markets, weapons. People will be executed and living will be harsh, but there will be food. Crime will ultimately rule in the form of corruption and bribery and ‘gangs’, the urban zones will become a hellhole, but livable if you dont mind strict military control and corrupted officials and eating soylent green or whatever they come up with to hand out.

Bugging out of scenario 3 will be much harder. You will be a criminal if you leave the urban zones, probably shot on sight, definitely stopped at military checkpoints as you try to escape into the rural areas. This WILL be a war. I think urban preppers will have it the hardest, you will be searched and made into a criminal for hoarding food. People will inform on each other. Honestly, the best and only prep for this is to seriously consider getting out now. Change jobs. Despite the news, there is work for people who want to work. It’s difficult for employers to fill jobs right now because it’s easier not to work.

The rural areas in a scenario 3 wont be a picnic either. The government will harass you if they can. Everything you do will be against the law, just the fact that you are not in a FEMA camp. Living independently will be illegal ‘for your own good’, but they will be completely overwhelmed trying to take care of their own bacon and managing the sewer of the urban camps to worry too much about us.

What you believe about any of this will shape how you prep. Myself, I live in a rural area. I’m doing what I call ‘bridge prepping’ that is prepping not just to survive, but to *live* in a post ‘end of civilization’ scenario. Think of what skills you have, how they could be bartered, the tools you would need. What services will be needed in a world without electricity or grocery stores? What supplies? Prep for a few weeks of disruption, but be ready to trade your skills and hard labor for chickens or fish or other labor that you can’t do.

Sorry for the long rant, I guess once I started there were a few things that just wanted to come out, hopefully it was coherent enough. If you disagree or need to correct my thinking, go right ahead.

#1
A couple bottles of nyquil and leave the propane stove and oil lamps burning in an airtight bedroom, and we fall asleep on the floor
#2
IF someone survives this,
Could work, maybe, i guess, slight chance
#3
Everyone could be an enemy in this scenario, eventually TPTB will get you
Better keep option 1 as an option here too.

None of it looks good

Bugging out will be an outlier,
Just look at all the refugees in all these countries around the world, the story Mac had on here about that family from Russia? I think was about as real as it will be,

There is no doubt, if shit got that bad, the people would need to turn on the govt. Go for all power heads. They would become the deer, turkey, squirrel, etc. in thousands of people’s minds. 200-300 yd shots from 270, 30-06, 300, you get my drift. At some point Twisted Sister’s “We’re not gonna take it” would have to start crossing the citizens minds. I know it would mine. I am not going to live like the above scenarios for long and it is against my religion to suicide. I will be shot while trying to take out valuable target.

I agree with many of your observations on bugging out or in. Being Ranch/Farm raised we were always and still are prepared. Folks I’ve met over the years that are city or suburb raised (townies) have a complete dependence on the infrastructure of town to supply them with there daily needs and comforts. In a SHTF scenario I doubt the electricity, water, fire protection, sheriff or medical responders will be working. A good reference book for urban dwellers who wish to bug in would be The Failure Of civility by Garland and Lawson. ISBN#978-0-615-67010-2. For those of you that bug out from an urban area with no prepared go to shelter I’m afraid your chances of survival are slim to none. I reference the experiences of Selco in Yugoslavia. SHTF school. If you read his blog you will be better able to see what bugging in or being trapped means.

Before assuming that “bugging out” makes any sense at all, in terms of increasing the survivability of one and one’s family, one might ask the refugees from Bosnia, Sarajevo, Uganda, Congo, etc. how being a refugee worked out. Often bugging out results in being stranded on the road and being robbed, raped and otherwise victimized. At least at home you know you situation, your terrain, your neighbors, and even the direction from which the surrounding zombies are likely to attack.

I grew up a country girl. Raised to hunt, fish and garden. I moved to communicut in 1996 met my hubby and the rest is history. 7 years ago we bought some land in VA. Plans to build eventually, unfortunately not fast enough for me. For 7 years, we camped. The first 3 we really roughed it. Potty buckets, cooking over open fire, bathing in the creek. The first trip to cabelas to buy tents, etc, my hubby argued with Me because I bought a Winchester 12g buck and tom shotgun. Why do we need that? Well, dear city boy, bobcats, deer, rabid raccoons and bear!

If you’ve never camped out miles from city light, you have no idea just how freaking dark the dark is.
If you’ve never roughed it, you don’t understand what a full time job it is in 50* drizzling rain to keep a fire going for warmth and to keep it hot enough to cook. Nevermind how fast you go through firewood.
Try sh!tting in a 5 gal potty bucket at 2 am in the damp cold, hear the animals in the forest around you. Then when that little bag is full, someone has e distasteful task of disposing of it properly.

Now add to this fishing, hunting, and foraging for vegetation in a SHTF situation. Most people would be too freaking lazy.

After a 5 day trip I’m ready for a vacation. After 3 years (about 9 trips like this) I said enough. I wanted to enjoy vacation too. We took an old grill and now have a temp power post for spotlights at night. $80 rents me a clean unused port-a-potty for up to two weeks. Just came out of the valley from a short 3 day trip. Pondered SHTF, I cant bug out……too far away. When we go camping we carry a trailer full of tools, etc and you just can’t pack everything you need on your back. Don’t bug out unless you have a known, prepped location.

just a hypothetical position here, if no one else will, I will play devils advocate.

Me and my gang will be roving in military formation and security. We travel light and fast. We will be looking for the “bug out” people first, as they are our easiest targets, and they have conveniently preped for us. We will take all thier gear and supplies, have our fun with them and kill them all. Maybe we get taken out ourselves, maybe not. Most of the ‘bug out” people have a clue as to what they are doing. They will leave big bullseye like targets with thier camp fires and other goods, thier lack of noise and light discipline. They are not in defensible positions. They have never slept out before, or if so at a camp ground. If they manage to take one or two of us out, well one less mouth to feed. Remember, some of us just dont care about life. Some of us just want to watch the world burn. Our most serious challanges will come from the “bug in” crowd as they at least may have a defensible position and may be in larger secure communities.

Not saying I subscribe to this, but many surely do, and what will you do when they find out in the open trying to live off the land in the forest?

This is a non-hypothetical answer. If you run into someone like me who has walked the walk. You will get a taste of my HK91 barfing out large amounts of fmj lead with damn good accuracy and on the move. It works both ways.

What will the “bug out” folks do to protect themselves from gangs like mine that will be out hunting them. After all it is an prep to pray on the weak and ill informed then it would be to go up against a fortress.

hmmmm shtf and I have my bov loaded with my trailer full of supplies. I start driving family with me. Let us just say small kids are in tow. for fun sake man driven like a bat outta hell and woman holding the gun for protection. good aim. kids are crying nerves are frayed and no matter what there will be fear and a slight feeling of panic….basic human nature, unless you are trained military. now all of a sudden there is a tree in the road for wjat ever reason. either you get out to dump the trailer full of goodies so you can go off road driven or you get out because you anticipated this and happen to have a chainsaw…now you are drawing attention because you are buzzing a chainsaw. or the tree is down cuz gangs put it there waiting for you….my point is there will be a lot of danger bugging out, you are a moving target, you can have all you need waiting someplace else, good luck getting there unless it is very close to home

You should have already been at your bol before gangs steal someones chainsaw to block a road to ambush someone. It will bee weeks before they go to that extreme when there is so many urban homes to ransack.

You and your neighbors are better off staying in your neighborhoods and defending them than you are by becoming refugees.

When the refugees show up here, we’ll do what we can for them. But the heavily-armed loners or groups are going to be dealt with summarily. No one is going to take some anti-social Rambo into their community. We’ll do our own hunting and security.

Bugging out is a catch 22, it’s a last resort and a first resort. Should I stay or should I go? It’s my opinion you are only going to have 24 to 120 hour to decide if you live in suburbia around a major population area, the further out to rural the more time and options you will have. Make no mistake bugging out is a life or death situation; my advice is start training for the scenario. Turn off the gas, power and water for a weekend. Take a trip somewhere where you have to find a place to camp and stay undetected for a weekend.

With out food, sanitation and water people will get really crazy starting at the 24 hour mark. For the average Joe I would recommend reading The Patriot by James Rawls or Going Home by A. American. Both will give you a glimpse of the inhumanity of man. Unless you have been to some of the worlds greatest shit holes most Americans have no clue how barbaric and savage people can become. Civilization is anything but civil.

If we get to that point I can guarantee you it will be anything but pleasant. Lets pray we never get to that point!!

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